HOW TO: Remove yourself from the background check site BeenVerified.com

Why am I sharing this trick (well, not really a trick, but based on some serious TOU reading)? Because it's bullshit that corporations buy and sell our personal information.

First,search the site to make sure you're listed. They usually have your legal name, aliases, age, current and previous addresses, and family members, but anyone can pay to see more (like your criminal record, bankruptcies, and more).

Third, you'll get one email saying they received your opt-out request, and another confirming you've been deleted.

Fourth, spread the word.

EDIT: Wow, glad you guys appreciate the info! Would you like to see a big one of these for all the big people search sites, like Intelius, Spokeo, MyLife, PeekYou, etc? I'm MORE than happy to provide. The more people know about this and remove themselves, the safer all our identities will be.

Also, apparently I have to explain that I don't work for BeenVerified even though I'm providing info that results in a direct loss to them (your listings). I actually work for an online privacy startup in Cambridge, but I didn't want to say that or say where I work because I wanted to provide helpful info without being criticized for "advertising."

EDIT 2: Here are some more people search sites you can delete yourself from while you're at it:

WhitePages: search for yourself and then scroll down until you see "Is this you? Remove your listing" on the bottom left, then follow the instructions. It's basically just a CAPTCHA.

PeopleFinder: search for yourself, bring up your listing, and then click the "remove listing" link above the map. On the removal page, pick a reason for deletion from the drop-down menu (I like "general privacy concerns"). Note that you DON'T have to provide your email; just ignore it and fill in the CAPTCHA, then hit the "remove me" button.

Spokeo: Search for yourself, copy the URL of the page that comes up for you, and go here.

PeekYou: Search for yourself, locate your profile, then open a new tab and go to their opt-out page.

MyLife: Call 1-888-704-1900, press option 2, wait to speak to a person, tell them that you want to remove your listing, and say that you found it by Googling yourself if they ask. They may also ask if you have a paid membership with them or get emails from them; the answer is no in both cases. They ask for your name, age, current address, and sometimes a previous address before they'll remove you.

Intelius: Go to their opt-out form here, but note that you'll need to upload a copy of your driver's license or other ID. Ridiculous, right?

A lot of ways, but mostly "public record" activity, like buying or selling real estate, being involved in a lawsuit, getting married, getting divorced, merely existing and having a birth certificate to prove it, entering sweepstakes, sending in rebates, joining social networks, making accounts on websites with shitty privacy policies, not blocking behavioral tracking online...basically not living under a rock.

Some are aggregators, which means they ONLY scrape and their data is notoriously inaccurate and shitty. E.g., Spokeo. Others, like Intelius, go directly to public record sources, so they're more accurate.

It's funny that you think it's simple, because I'd say it's one of the more complicated ones. WhitePages and PeopleFinder, for example, are way faster. For WhitePages, search for yourself and then scroll down until you see "Is this you? Remove your listing" on the bottom left, then follow the instructions. It's basically just a CAPTCHA. For PeopleFinder, search for yourself, bring up your listing, and then click the "remove listing" link above the map. On the removal page, pick a reason for deletion from the drop-down menu (I like "general privacy concerns"). Note that you DON'T have to provide your email; just ignore it and fill in the CAPTCHA, then hit the "remove me" button.

Fair enough. Though, I was expecting all these sites to require me to fax in my SS card and driver's license to get removed. Giving them a spam email for a verification link, while annoying, is still not nearly as bad as the hoops you need to jump through for shitboxes like Intellius.

Right. I've actually talked to Intelius's Chief Privacy Officer, Jim Adler, about this very thing, and he says they draw the line with requiring an ID. Basically, their argument is that there's no way of knowing that it's YOU (or at least someone you authorized) requesting the deletion without your ID. At least there are a lot of sites out there that require far less.

Frankly, I think everything should be opt-in only: you don't agree to have your info posted, it doesn't get posted.

you know whats weird is that i am the only person in my family that is not listed. all my siblings (even the younger ones without a job) and parents is listed. I guess I am the only one living under a rock. I'm the only one without a facebook account though so that might be something.

I had to email them and ask, citing the FTC Act that says it's an unfair trade practice to not allow people to remove their info from a database like theirs. Once I figured it out, I made the template. I work for a privacy company that removes people's info from sites like these all the time, so it's my job to figure it out.

There's no specific act that says you can get your name off a website. What it DOES say is that a site is responsible for upholding its own Terms of Use. The TOU is like a contract that the site enters with you, the visitor. They have a duty to uphold it. If they don't, the FTC has said that it's an unfair and deceptive trade practice. It's a convoluted way of bringing legal action against a site because you can't technically do it yourself; you have to refer your complaint to the FTC, who then decides if it's worth pursuing on your behalf.

Could you possibly give a list of other sites like this that you remove peoples info from, and the techniques you use to remove said info? Would be nice if we could all make our data private, or at least know the steps involved in doing so. Thanks!

Here's our current list, although I'm always adding to it. I'd like to put together a thread with opt-out steps for all of them; seems like there's enough interest. If you want to know about a specific site for now, though, email me at sarah at getabine dot com.

That part of it is. Thankfully I do lots of other things, and I really like those. Even so, it's pretty motivating when you know you're cleaning up someone's online presence and that they really appreciate it.

I had to email them and ask, citing the FTC Act that says it's an unfair trade practice to not allow people to remove their info from a database like theirs. Once I figured it out, I made the template. I work for a privacy company that removes people's info from sites like these all the time, so it's my job to figure it out.

Except now you've attached that surname to a username. If you use the same username in many places, you've created a trail linking the much broader and harder to pin down identity, to the much more specific and unique username.

Unless of course it isn't your real surname, and you were making a joke, in which case well played, Mr. Smith.

i really don't care. you want to send me pizzas, please do. want to stop by for a drink? bring ice. want to kick my door in and pillage? go right ahead. having faced real threats to my life and safety and come out on top, i don't live in fear.

Definitely a good citizen, but I have to wonder what type of implications this could have in regards to people seeking jobs. It is well known that companies run background checks on potential applicants for hire, so how would they react if they can't find out anything on this person they are interested in possibly hiring if we wipe all this out? Would they simply just toss the name on the no-hire pile?

Or maybe employers have a special service they use or something? I don't know.

Ok, so they have my name, and got my town form somewhere. You can't see anything beyond that without signing up. So I should now contact them and VERIFY that their information is correct, while providing them with even more information? Ok, sure.

I just looked at their Privacy Policy again and they don't have a clear statement that they don't do this, but other sites, like Intelius, explicitly state that info provided for opt-outs isn't collected or stored.

I only gave them the info they displayed and about an hour later I got confirmation that the record had been deleted. They didn't have my current address, so I included the last city in the record. Pretty much a cut and paste of the publicly available record. It was pretty simple.

Sadly, getting your name removed is a fruitless effort. Not only are there dozens of similar sites that have the same information, but the original source of the information doesn't go anywhere just because this one site removes it from their copy of the data. As someone who rents out real estate properties, I've often dig up information on people and I've never used one of these pay for a background check sites.

Before I even respond to an email about a property, I can easily review any court case involving the person using a government provided site in my state. That means any divorce, any bankruptcy, and most importantly, any evictions that went all the way to court. But the best source of information... Facebook.

They all have opt-out procedures, as convoluted and difficult as they may be, and as hard as the sites try to hide them from you. Some, like Intelius & USSearch, require faxes. Others, like PeekYou and WhitePages, let you do it online. Some, like BeenVerified, require an email. MyLife is obnoxious in that it requires a phone call. You just have to dig for them.

$75 to opt you out of all the big ones (I believe we're currently at 18), and $99 for an entire year of monitoring and reporting on where we found your info with screenshots (basically, I check to make sure the opt-outs worked and keep at it if they didn't). I've gotten it down to a science, but it still takes forever.

I can't opt out of a public records search, since I own property and it's, you know, kinda public. Tough to hide a house. If that's all the info they have, what's the point of opting out when they're just scraping public records?

I know of 18 big ones. The big ones supply to the smaller ones, so removing from the big ones cuts off the smaller ones at the source and stops the spread of information.

Here are the instructions for Intelius from their Privacy Policy: "In order for us to suppress or opt out your personal information from appearing on our Website, we need to verify your identity. To do this, we require faxed proof of identity. Proof of identity can be a state issued ID card or driver's license. If you are uploading, faxing, or mailing a copy of your driver's license, we require that you cross out the photo and the driver's license number. We only need to see the name, address and date of birth. We will only use this information to process your opt out request. To submit your opt out request online, please click here, to submit via fax please send to 425-974-6194 or to submit via mail please send to Intelius Consumer Affairs PO Box 808 Bothell, WA 98041-0808. Allow 4 to 6 weeks to process your request. We will only process opt out requests received by online submission, fax, or mail and no request will be processed without complete information (i.e., name, address and date of birth). Requests for opt out will not be processed over the phone or via email."

I sent the opt-out email and made sure to do so from my secondary email account. They emailed me back at my primary email account confirming receipt of my email, despite it not having been referenced in my opt-out (and no message back to the secondary email where the opt-out was initiated, BTW). WTF? Something tells me my opt-out was fruitless.

Their privacy policy mentions that they get some of their information from the searches their members perform. Conceivably, my information could be re-added every time somebody does a background check on me using whatever information they have to identify me.

If they still retain my information after I opt out, but don't display it (as neithernet surmised), they (hopefully) check the new info against the opt out database, validate the new information as being associated with the opt out, and prevent its reappearance on the site. This wouldn't be possible if they completely delete all of the old info because they wouldn't have that opt out database to reference.

I guess this might deserve some clarification. I can see them complying with the opt out "deletion" request, taking it literally and not maintaining an opt out database, then figuratively shrugging their shoulders ("Oops, not our fault") when that info is re-added later. Then we would need to continually send these deletion request emails.

Is searching for myself going to cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself which will cause me to be listed so then I have to send them my info to remove myself?

I actually talked to the Chief Privacy Officer of Intelius about this, because it's a legit concern. In their TOU, at least, they say "We will only use this information to process your opt out request." If they say it in their TOU, they're contractually bound to uphold it. Of course, BeenVerified isn't Intelius, but they all follow remarkably similar procedures.

I was kind of shocked to find my name in that site because I've always been overly cautious or even paranoid about my personal information. Is there any way of finding out what company sold them the information?

Unfortunately, a lot of them buy it from local governments and other public record sources. It's a very liberal understanding of the law of public records, except sites like these take information that you used to have to trek down to town hall to obtain and post it online for anyone with a computer to see. It's all about visibility and ease of access. It changes everything. Also, see my earlier explanation of where some of this info comes from.

Cool idea for a startup! Sounds like fun technology and a rewarding endeavor. I'm not a Facebook user, but I'm pretty sure my name is tagged on a bunch of random photos. I don't know how public these are but it annoys the crap out of me (I don't want some random photos of me drunk at parties floating around especially with the metadata of my real name). Have you done any research on getting that type of thing removed?

I used to really hate how common my name is, but now I'm rather glad. There are over 2.6M results when I type my name into Google surrounded by quotes, and 1.17M if I even use my middle initial. Sure there are probably ways to narrow it down behind the paywall, but If anyone wants to know my details that badly, they're going to find them, search site or not. For now I'll stick with security through obscurity. (actually, that's probably security through commonality, eh. Whatevs. :)

Well I'm listed, I guess my last employer is to blame for that. I kinda want to sign up to see what the hell they list, and if it does get too personal, I will request opt-out.EDIT: Oh wow, wtf, I can't even check my own without paying, ok, then I am definitely opting out.

I wish there was some way to know what was on there without paying. I don't mind having it out on the web that I have no criminal record and my name and age, but still like address, city of birth, etc is creepy and is just more information for a social engineer to use.

How about a Redditor stealth mode, so sites like BeenVerified don't experience an avalanche of Redditors that lets them know of a gap we can all squeeze through?

Like, if your birthday day is the 1st of a month, wait a day before acting, if your birth dayis the 2nd of amonth, wait 2days before acting. Though I'm sure there are more intelligent filters to be suggested.

Could you add the mylife information to the OP? It is currently the top result if I vanity search myself on google. The other sites don't bother me quite as much.

I saw in one of the comments, that you have to call them. Is it this number off the website? "For questions regarding MyLife.com, contact customer care at 1-888-704-1900 between the hours of 6am - 9pm Monday - Friday, Pacific Time; 6am - 6pm Saturday and Sunday,"

Added; see above. I'll also post it here: MyLife: Call 1-888-704-1900, press option 2, wait to speak to a person, tell them that you want to remove your listing, and say that you found it by Googling yourself if they ask. They may also ask if you have a paid membership with them or get emails from them; the answer is no in both cases. They ask for your name, age, current address, and sometimes a previous address before they'll remove you.

It's an aggregator site, so all the info they post is completely automated and comes from searches. By removing yourself from the sources of that info, you effectively remove yourself from Pipl. As far as I know, that's the best you can do.

Thank you! Removed myself from all where I showed up, easy-peasy. Of course, that won't stop any of them from re-adding me at some point in the future from "public records." Still, it feels good to get off of these sites for the time-being.

Thank you! Removed myself from all where I showed up, easy-peasy. Of course, that won't stop any of them from re-adding me at some point in the future from "public records." Still, it feels good to get off of these sites for the time-being.

Obviously businesses these days aren't particularly concerned about that. Taking your information down makes a nice statement, but hardly helps you financially(unless you have things worth hiding). Gaming the system to your advantage is a better idea at this point; it isn't like privacy laws are going to get much better, and information usage and importance is becoming more ubiquitous.

I appreciate the fight, but people should also consider the implications. People may arbitrarily compromise their prospects without realizing it.